Voice of Jewish Sport

HAVING BEEN embroiled in an argument with the Israeli Judo Association for the past two years, Alice Schlesinger is finally set to cut her ties with Israel – and represent Great Britain. Hoping to make a hat-trick of appearances at Olympic Games in Rio in 2016, this time in Union Jack colours, the 26-year-old is a former world and European champion and has already won on these shores, fighting her way to gold at the U63 kg event at the British Championships in Sheffield at the weekend. GB have never won a gold medal at an Olympic Games, their 18 medals consisting of eight silvers and 10 bronze, how fitting would it be for an Israeli to deliver a first gold.

IT’S BEEN a busy time for Jewish kids’ football and everyone concerned with the Maccabi Junior League over the past week. Seven days ago, Jewish News were still the sponsors, though that ended on Friday when chairman Laurence Thorne pulled the plug, upset by our coverage of the men’s Peter Morrison Cup. Officially now with no sponsor, Thorne has said he has a new one in place and hopes to make an announcement over the next few days. While we wouldn’t begrudge the League a new sponsor, we were upset over how events unfolded. Accusations of being derogatory and negative towards Jewish football, and continuously looking to try and knock it aren’t nice to hear and obviously couldn’t be further from the truth. Merely reporting facts and airing people’s concerns over the format change, we’re not here to paint Jewish football in a negative light – for a start it serves us absolutely no purpose. A volatile last few days, hopefully this week will be a quieter one.